On Warranties and DIY Repairs

Below is an email a reader sent to me (reproduced with his permission) …

A while back I purchased a new agent. The firearm would not feed a mag without jamming. The gun shop told me it needs a break in period so I shot about a 1000 rounds with the gun jamming on every mag. I tried different magazines and the gun jammed on all of them. I tried different recoil springs and still the gun jammed on all mags. I tried all top brands of ammo and still produced jams. I talked to the gun shop and it was suggested the feed ramp needs to be smoothed out with jeweler’s rogue which I did. Still the gun jams. So I finally decided to send the gun into Colt customer service. It takes 3 different phone calls for them to email me the prepaid FedEx shipping label. I finally mail the gun off on Aug 30 2012. The gun arrives at Colt a few days later. I wait a month and call to check up on the gun. I am told Colt is behind and nothing has been done. I wait roughly another month (Oct 24 2012) and I am told I now have an invoice. The invoice is to replace the barrel and frame which will cost around 800 dollars and that my warranty is void. Their reasoning is that work has been done on the gun which results in my warranty being void. To me this solution is ridiculous and unacceptable on many levels.

1. Why would I repair the gun for 800 instead of buying a new one (At this point, I am thinking Glock for 600 bucks. I have personal experience with several that out of the box have never jammed)

2. Why should the warranty be voided? Colt produced a gun that jammed constantly and it made it pass its quality inspection. It was purchased and then I spent extra money trying various solutions that the gun store suggested. If the gun would have worked like it should out of the box then no modifications would have been needed.

So far Colt has not offered me any other solution besides stating my warranty is void. At this point in time I would like as many people as possible to know what kind of company and customer service you get by buying colt. Please do not get caught up in the Colt B.S. of Colt being the American gun and its American history. An American company would not treat its customers like this.

I sympathise the reader because if a gun I purchase does not work I immediately try fix the problem. I am capable of doing many gunsmithing tasks myself. On the other hand I sympathise with Colt because they have no way of knowing if the work done on the gun was done to fix a pre-existing problem or was the cause of the problem. They cannot be expected to fix botched DIY gunsmithing.

If you have a problem with a new gun, the best thing is to immediately send it back to the manufacturer for repair.